Full Slate of Aqualias Qualify for Mattijana Singles DrawBURGES, Mtj.—Following an underwhelming performance at Les Championnats in Beçonailles, the four singles players now familiar to virtually all of Aqual again seek to make deep runs into a Tier 1 tournament. Today in Mattijana, all four Aqualias managed to move past the qualifying round (albeit three with bated breath). Detailed results from all matches below.
Bartolo Sabanero (31) (AQL) 6 6 6
Saxton Jale (SAP) 3 7 1
The only seeded Aqualia in Mattijana, Bartolo Sabanero (31st), also the only Aqualia playing on a show court today, fended off a challenge from Saxton Jale of Solarampa. In the Stadijo Juliana, Sabanero began the match well both on serve and on the return, putting enough pressure on Jale's serve to break twice without receiving the same treatment from the Solarampa player.
After comfortably sealing the first set 6-3, he dropped his first service game of the second set for the first time in the match, with abysmal errors from either wing. Jale got an early lead by consolidating on the next game, with Sabanero continuing in bad form. Regardless, he managed to pull out the hold in the next game for 1-2 but could not get the break back. Serving down 1-3, 0-30, Sabanero served his first ace of the set before an impressive cross-court forehand winner off the next return led his recovery in the game and denied an opportunity for Jale to clinch a double break. The player from Solarampa attempted to change things up by going for a serve-and-volley approach in the next game, but Sabanero quickly took advantage of this for some relatively easy passing shots to rally to three games all. However, the Aqualia could not keep up this strategy obviously going into his own service game, and evidently could not keep up his momentum, either, dropping the crucial seventh game on Jale's first break point following deuce. With Jale staying at the baseline, Sabanero struggled to exploit the holes in the Solarampa player's service game and instead allowed for the consolidation. Serving down 3-5 to stay in the set, the Aqualian thirty-first seed seemed stone cold in his surprising hold to love, although nerves from the other side of the net likely played a factor as well. This was even more evident with Jale attempting to serve out the set: two double faults and two unforced errors later, it was back on serve in the second. However, now that the set itself was not on the line, Jale finally seemed to loosen up, hitting returns much more freely to once again break serve, before Sabanero mirrored this on Jale's serve to force the tiebreak. There, the player from Solarampa looked quite impressive from all sides of the court, both on the serving and receiving ends, carrying the set with 7-3 in the tiebreaker.
However, Sabanero is not seeded in this tournament without reason, and he showed that in the decider, with a dominant performance on serve, dismissing the only break point of the set readily with a one-two punch whilst breaking twice himself. Surely a solid takeaway from this match is that Sabanero's win percentage on serve will play a critical role in this and future tournaments; although it is true that clay is the surface with the most breaks of serve, the Aqualian seed will do well to keep them to a minimum (he was broken four times in the second set, which he lost, but never broken in the first and third sets, which he won). He will face compatriot Daniel Cervantes in the first round of the main draw.
Daniel Cervantes (AQL) 7 5 6
Sophie Bellavie (NEG) 5 7 1
Meanwhile, on Court 2, Daniel Cervantes was taking on Sophie Bellavie on singles day of qualifying. Both of the first sets were intense struggles between these two players, with several trades of breaks to begin and end the first set. The Neu Engollon player dropped serve first, but Cervantes was soon to follow, before again breaking serve for a 2-1 lead. Cervantes was then first to hold serve, methodically planning out some wonderful points. Bellavie, however, soon followed with a service hold, still trailing by two games to three. The next four games were all holds for the respective serving player, before Bellavie managed to break Cervantes to prevent him from serving out the set at 5-4. However, the player from Neu Engollon failed to consolidate the break, with forced errors from the net giving the Aqualia the break back. Serving for the set, Cervantes set up some brilliant points off the returns to manage a 7-5 victory in the first set.
The first four games of the second set were all relatively simplistic holds, before Cervantes this time broke first by coming to the net to cut off the angles from his opponent. However, Bellavie rallied quickly to manage some impressive winners on the run to break back for three games apiece. The Neu Engollon player then was able to score some points off of service winners to hold 4-3, preceding a unique pattern from both players of winning two successive games via a break/hold or hold/break pattern which ultimately manifested in Bellavie forcing the pressure back onto Cervantes, serving to stay in the set at 5-6. He failed to do so at 15-40, simply giving his opponent too easy of a shot repeatedly.
This seemingly ignited a fire in the Aqualia, who thereafter pushed his balls progressively deeper and wider into the court, giving Bellavie virtually nothing to work with. On both serve and return, Cervantes managed to inject pace into his balls and not only overpowered but overwhelmed his opponent with sharp angles and clever technique. He handily won the third and final set by a 6-1 margin, going on to win the match 7-5, 5-7, 6-1. Although hopefully he can begin the match with this match vigor in the future, it bodes well for him that he can manage this late in the match as well, especially against a player like Bartolo Sabanero, who he will face in the first round and who also won in three sets today.
Matéu Virxiliu (AQL) 7 4 11
Victoria Martin (CRB) 5 6 9
The second match on Court 2 to also feature an Aqualia was that of Matéu Virxiliu's Mattijana debut. Opening the first set, both he and Victoria Martin relied on holding serve, with the first break of serve finally occurring in the eleventh game when Virxiliu ended a fourteen-shot rally with a clear volley winner off the Croblade player's drop shot. Virxiliu once again utilized a much stronger serve than typical to clinch the set 7-5.
The second set was the almost complete polar opposite of the first. The first five games were all breaks of serve, with the first hold coming in the sixth from Virxiliu to go up 4-2. Martin soon followed suit for 4-3 before again breaking Virxiliu's serve off a series of awkward bounces on the lines. With renewed momentum, the player from Croblade managed to fall into a good rhythm on serve, holding comfortably at 40-15 before seamlessly transitioning to receiving, managing to break the Aqualia's serve for the second time in a row to win the set 6-4 after four straight games.
And Martin did not let up the momentum from the second set when heading into the third (something Virxiliu, on the other hand, has been prone to do throughout his tournaments), winning the first three games handily, including a third consecutive break at 30-40. However, Virxiliu is known as much for his fierce determination as for his seemingly temperamental (lack of) consistency, and would not go down without a fight in the final set, finally managing to hold serve after four deuces, preventing the double break. Martin barely managed to hold for 4-1, but was ill prepared to successfully return after the next change of ends, with the Aqualia holding for 4-2. With some refound energy, Virxiliu was darting across the court, not letting any of Martin's shots past, enough to break back before holding for an even 4-all in the final set. Despite dropping the last three games, the Croblade player was unfazed in the next service game, holding to fifteen. Virxiliu managed successfully to serve to stay in the match at 4-5, forcing the pressure back onto Martin, who couldn't withstand Virxiliu's aggressive attacks from all around the court (with one winner even from well within No Man's Land). Now
serving for the match, the Aqualia was stopped in this pursuit with equally aggressive groundstrokes from Martin to equalize at six games all. With there being no final set tiebreak, the struggle continued for a two-game lead. Martin struck first, holding after the eighth deuce (the longest game of the set up to then), shifting the pressure again onto Virxiliu to serve to stay in the qualifying match. He did so with relative ease, although moreso due to a handful of errors from his opponent than due to his own merits. Virxiliu then initiated five consecutive games with a break of serve at 7-all, 30-40. The eventual hold? Virxiliu, in the twentieth game, to clinch the set eleven games to nine and progress to the main draw 7-5, 4-6, 11-9. Although Virxiliu has been known to warm up throughout the duration of any given tournament, it will surely be a challenge to not be fatigued in his next match tomorrow against Lucien le Floch of Reçueçn.
Harina Maqqitani (NAZ) 4 3
Rafael Bautista (AQL) 6 6
Rafael Bautista began his campaign in Mattijana with a decent victory over Harina Maqqitani on Court 5. Although the margin was neither very close, as seen in Matéu Virxiliu's match, nor completely dominant, it was nevertheless a good and much-needed win for the Aqualia who has struggled the most on the international tour despite being unquestionably the greatest player on Aqual's national tour. Bautista did not begin exceptionally well, but managed to win points in the crucial moments, limiting Maqqitani to just one break out of ten total opportunities, whilst the Aqualia broke twice out of only five chances in the first set. Bautista performed notably better later in the set and at "clutch" moments in each game (when the scoreline is tied at either 30-30 or deuce, and winning the point provides a game/break point). After breaking to go up 4-3, the remainder of the set remained on serve for the Aqualian player to win it 6-4.
In the second set, Bautista, having warmed up from the first set, played even better in the second, pouncing earlier in the set to break Maqqitani's serve for 2-1, before serving well and limiting the player from North Alezia to only a single break point opportunity, which he saved at 3-2, 40-AD. The middle part of the set remained on serve, before Bautista began to closed it out with a strong break of serve at 5-3, exploiting Maqqitani's struggles with good movement across the court for several clear winners (reportedly due to a leg injury some time ago, coupled with a subsequent loss in practice time). Bautista advances, 6-4, 6-3, to face Livinia Moore of Electrum on Court 6 in the first round.
All news from the Mattijana Open, including Carla Tormo' and Lara Navarro's qualifying match in doubles, to come as usual tomorrow in our next publication of the
Toboso Chronicle as well as online and across all our digital platforms. Certainly a great deal of attention will be due the blockbuster meeting of Sabanero and Cervantes in only the first round of an already quite exciting tournament here in Burges.